NeuroSky wants gamers to start using their brains.
The start-up that specializes in technology to measure brainwaves was at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) here this week showing videogame titans how they can go beyond motion-sensing controls to tap into the power of the mind.
“We can simulate ‘The Force’ in a game and you can bend things or lift things by thinking,” NeuroSky chief executive Stanley Yang(楊士玉) said, referring to telepathic powers used by Jedi knights in the Star Wars films and books.
PHOTO: AFP
“For games with magic or sorcery or where The Force is the star, if you use your brain or thoughts it is more magical,” he said.
Nintendo pioneered motion-sensing controllers with the launch of Wii consoles in 2006, and Microsoft and Sony showcased variations on the theme with Kinect and Move for their respective consoles at the recently ended E3.
NeuroSky believes that the trend toward going beyond button-and-toggle controls to letting players use body motion or natural gestures has made the videogame industry receptive to the notion of adding mind power commands.
The company was founded by a cadre of scientists about five years ago in the Silicon Valley city of San Jose, in California.
NeuroSky bills itself as the world leader in bringing biosensor technology to the consumer market with products including a Mattel Mindflex toy and a Force Trainer game.
“Our focus this year is on gaming,” NeuroSky marketing vice president David Westendorf said. “From the smallest of developers all the way to the biggest console and software companies.”
NeuroSky demonstrated a headset with a single sensor that presses against a player’s forehead to read brain waves. The sensor measures how intensely a player is concentrating or how relaxed they are as well as eye blinks.
Those signals are translated into on-screen commands in videogames. For example, a reporter lifted a virtual car by relaxing then set it ablaze by focusing attention on it in a Neuroboy demonstration game.
“It is like willing it to explode,” NeuroSky manager Johnny Liu said. “Like I am filling it up with Chi. It is very precise.”
Videogame makers could use feedback regarding how relaxed players are to reward them with better accuracy for “steady hands” in shooter games, Westendorf said.
“How it gets woven into the gaming experience is where the creativity comes into play,” Westendorf said. “It adds a dimension in the same way Move, Wii and Kinect have brought the body into it — we are bringing the brain into it.”
NeuroSky makes its money by selling “everything from the chips that process the data to finished headsets.”
Executives from the firm said they connected with an array of game software and hardware makers at E3 but would not disclose details.
“If you look at all the technology invented so far by humans, all the gadgets we have require the human to conform to the technology,” Yang said, referring to typing, toggles, buttons, switches and dials. “The vision is to use biosensors to have the machines conform to humans.”
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day